Making mental health services work at the primary level.

Prevention of mental disorders The recommendations in Setting the agenda for mental health state clearly that the evidence for primary prevention of severe mental illnesses is relatively scarce and that, in general, the effectiveness of primary prevention strategies has been proved only in some areas. I believe that, while waiting for more substantial evidence concerning strategies to prevent specific mental disorders, the recommendations should include reference to the usefulness of some non-specific strategies, such as those aiming to combat poverty, domestic isolation, powerlessness (resulting, for example, from low levels of education and economic dependence), the oppression of women (2, 3), child abuse, the abandonment of elderly people, and the violence and trauma experienced by forced migrants and refugees.